Linkee-poo has been around for a long, long year, stole many a man's soul and faith

Here we will note the passing of the end-times industry shyster Tim LeHaye. Noted for both the influence he held in the culture, his adherence to his doctrine and while he might have bilked millions out of millions, I don't hold him in as much contempt of the other false prophets of our time. At least those millions got entertained for their money. Also noted that life is fleeting and I need to get that WIP done.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Devi Pillai are now Associate Publishers of Tor Books. That is very cool news.

Tobias Buckell on representation in SF/F publishing.

Video, "Study for Fifteen Points." Okay, that's kinda cool. (Grokked from Dan)

The Navy used to have the saying, "Join the Navy, See the World." Now it's "Join the Navy, Catch Them All." Oh Navy, I can't believe this is an actual approved thing (especially given opsec issues). (Grokked from John)

Some metadata on camera usage (for images posted to the internet). Grokked from Dan)

At the request of the prosecutor, a Texas judge dismisses the final charges against the two people who perpetrated the Planned Parenthood "sting" video. Well, I can't say that isn't disappointing.

It can't get any worse. "But Chalupa’s message, which had not been previously reported, stands out: It is the first indication that the reach of the hackers who penetrated the DNC has extended beyond the official email accounts of committee officials to include their private email and potentially the content on their smartphones." Okay, it got worse. So for some time before the DNC emails were leaked, at least one person in opposition research got notifications from Yahoo that their account had most likely be hacked by a "state actor." "'Rest assured we only send these notifications of suspected attacks by state-sponsored actors when we have a high degree of confidence,' wrote Bob Lord, the company’s Chief Information Security Officer, in the Tumblr post." (Grokked from John Scalzi)

So, what is the evidence that the Russians are behind the DNC email leaks? Okay, how's this article that lays out not only the chain of events between several actions taken, but also outlines Russian new cyber-warfare strategy. And then there's this part, "Second, stolen documents leaked in an influence operation are not fully trustworthy. Deception operations are designed to deceive. The metadata show that the Russian operators apparently edited some documents, and in some cases created new documents after the intruders were already expunged from the DNC network on June 11. A file called donors.xls, for instance, was created more than a day after the story came out, on June 15, most likely by copy-pasting an existing list into a clean document." Classic misinformation campaign. It almost makes me nostalgic for the Cold War. It also makes me think, "Holy shit, they're actually trying to directly influence/control an election." (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

While I normally point to Elizabeth Bear in the writing links, this time it's for her defense of Hillary Clinton that she storified for ease of pointing to.

"Why can't kids today just work their way through college the way earlier generations did?" I was able to work through my recent Associates Degree, but then I had a full-time job with 20+ years of experience pay. Tuition costs have been rising at rates that are multiples of inflation where as wages, especially for part-time jobs, haven't kept pace (even with the adjustment from the time I worked part-time through my first degree) since the early 70s.

Michael Moore on why he thinks Trump will likely win. It all depends on who get who out to vote this November. I think I've said that before. Republicans are reliable voters. They always go out to the polls. Even in off election years. This was also why I was excited to hear that Obama is ramping up his political engine. He had a fabulous "get out the vote" campaign. He he allows Hillary to be at the controls of that (or at least points it in her direction) that might not be an issue. The "fuck it" vote, however, is still a problem. So Dems have to do what we've been yelling at them for over two decades. You have to tell people how government is involved in their lives. You have to tell them exactly how bad it would be under Trump (this is why the SCOTUS vacancy is so important and why I believe it was a strategic mistake of the conservatives to not take their medicine quickly and get it over with). People don't see the results of their actions, they believe the government is far removed form their life and that nobody is listening. The Democrats are the perfect party to say, "Hey, without these government functions, your life wouldn't be possible and we'd all be subsistence farmers" (roads, police, sewers - the great unthought about benefit of civilization). We're here to make it better for you. (Grokked from Justin)

NBC polling doesn't show a post-convention bump for Trump. Also in the other polls, while they did show a bump (IIRC, defined by 3%+ change) there weren't much different. Now most polls show both within the margin of error of each other. But the NBC poll does show number for "interest" broken out by Republicans, Independents and Democrats. I'm a little suspicious of this poll (because it is close to being an outlier in terms of results), but the interests and "feelings" questions are quite interesting. Especially among Independents. This is the point where more people start paying attention (IIRC, we're still below 50% of the population though). So movement and perception within the "independent" vote is crucial to where polls and the electorate will go. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

Tweet of my heart: ‏@Hamm_Tips Somewhere out there are people who need to hear a story you're uniquely able to tell. Art by others, even better art, won't do; only yours.